1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to computing systems, and more specifically, to monitoring the operation of computing systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Systems management programs are often used for monitoring groups of computing devices, such as a group of personal computers deployed within a company's local area network. Generally, some systems management programs are configured to monitor the performance, usage, configuration, and network activity of each of the computing devices in the system. Some such systems management programs obtain data from programs, referred to as agents, executed by each of the computing devices. The agents gather data at the computing device, and the systems management program generally coordinates the operation of the agents by establishing connections with the agents and requesting the agents to report data back to the systems management program, often by periodically polling the agents for data.
Generally, existing systems management programs are not well-suited for monitoring the operation of relatively large computing systems, multiple computing systems, or computing systems in which constituent computing devices are frequently added or removed. Configuring system management programs is often relatively labor-intensive, as certain such programs require an operator to identify, and configure the program for, each new computing device added to the system. Further, relatively large computing systems or multiple computing systems generally yield relatively large amounts of data, as each computing device in the system may be an additional potential source of information to be monitored.
These inadequacies are particularly challenging for those monitoring computing systems in a data center or other scalable computing system, such as computing systems operating in a cloud-based virtual data center. Often such computing systems are designed to be scalable, such that new computing devices or virtual machines are provisioned based on the load placed on the computing system. As a result, in some use cases, new computing devices or new virtual machines (that is, computing instances of the computing system) are added and removed relatively frequently as demand fluctuates. These transient computing instances are difficult for certain existing system management programs to effectively monitor, as the amount of data generated can be potentially relatively large and the new instances often go unnoticed and unmonitored by the systems management program until the systems management program is reconfigured to establish a connection with the new computing instances and request data from them. Further, systems management programs are often configured by technicians with relatively specialized knowledge, but such persons are often not in the employ of entities operating cloud-based virtual data centers, which are often specifically designed to be used by entities without specialized expertise in the operation and maintenance of such computing systems. Moreover, because such computing systems are often accessed over the Internet, rather than a local area network under the control of a single entity, the connection between the systems management program and the monitored computing instances is often less reliable, which can result in uneven data flows that could potentially overwhelm the systems management program or cause data to be lost. Finally, those operating computing systems often rely on those computing systems continuing to operate and perform with certain characteristics without fail over relatively long periods of time, for instance over months or years. Relatively short deviations in performance or operation are therefore of interest to such users, but many existing systems management programs either do not monitor data indicative of performance with sufficient granularity or do not monitor data indicative of performance with frequency speed to inform users of events briefly affecting performance.
While the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and will herein be described in detail. The drawings may not be to scale. It should be understood, however, that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit the invention to the particular form disclosed, but to the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the present invention, e.g., as defined by the appended claims.